Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for facilitating the execution of virtual computing environments in computer systems. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for synchronizing settings associated with virtual computing environments executing on a computer system.
Related Art
Virtual machines may be used to extend the functionality and portability of computing environments. For example, a virtual machine containing a guest operating system may be executed from any computer with a compatible hypervisor for the virtual machine. The self-contained nature of the virtual machine may also facilitate the efficient copying and transfer of the virtual machine between multiple devices, including personal computers, servers, and portable storage devices.
Ease of deployment and portability may further be facilitated through the central management and local execution of virtual machines. An example of a central management solution for locally executed virtual machines may include the MokaFive Server, Player and Creator products offered by MokaFive (moka5, Inc., a Delaware corporation). In particular, a virtual machine may be centrally defined and managed using the MokaFive Server. Any computer containing the MokaFive Player may then download an image of the virtual machine from the MokaFive Server and run the virtual machine within the MokaFive Player. Changes made to the virtual machine from the computer may be backed up on the MokaFive Server so that subsequent execution of the virtual machine from other computers may include the changes. Similarly, updates to the virtual machine may be administered by the MokaFive Server and automatically included in the virtual machine image so that subsequent use of the virtual machine includes the updates.
However, changes to settings associated with a particular virtual machine may not be applied to other virtual machines on the same computer system. For example, a change to the time zone and/or default language of a Windows (Windows™ is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.) virtual machine may not affect the time zones and/or default languages of a Linux (Linux™ is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds) virtual machine and/or a host operating system on the computer system. Instead, a user of the computer system may be required to manually update the time zone and/or default language settings on the other virtual machines and/or host operating system to maintain uniformity in the settings across the virtual machines and/or host operating system. Moreover, such manual updating of settings across virtual machines may be tedious, confusing, and/or error-prone.
Hence, use of multiple virtual machines and/or operating systems on a computer system may be facilitated by automatically synchronizing settings across the virtual machines and/or operating systems.